USC ICT’s Medical Virtual Reality Lab.

VIRTUAL REALITY

USC Institute For Creative Technologies      

                          http://ict.usc.edu/background

          http://in.reuters.com/video/2012/03/13/game-therapy-a-powerful-tool-for-paralys?videoId=231646110&videoChannel=1004  

Optimizing Participation Through Technology For Successful Aging With Disability

                           OPTT-RERC [Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center]

                  
                           http://www.isi.edu/research/rerc

  ICT has made significant improvements to the game -
 At the beginning, it was difficult
> for me to play the game - the kinect wouldn't track my left arm [ now will track much simpler],
    and the focus objects are brighter [easier to see]. But over time, the changes that have been 
   made have enabled me to play the game and provide  more detailed feedback.
> Key features of the games that are important and stand out over other video
   games are the option to tailor the game to different people and the option
   to play different games depending on the goal of the player or their
   clinician. The tracking of performance and ability to show improvement over
   time is also very helpful..

In February, 2012 [33-months post-stroke] I used my left arm/hand to work a VR software game for the first time.

NPR KINECT Story features Mark Bolas and Belinda Lange’s Jewel Mine Game

                         
/Posted by Orli Belman on July 18, 2011 in Games.

A story on NPR’s All Things Considered covered the many ways researchers and others are modifying the Microsoft Kinect. For the story reporter Alex Schmidt spoke to Mark Bolas, ICT’s associate director for mixed reality and an associate professor in the Interactive Media Division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, about the trend.

“I remember getting this wrench with my father when I was 13 or 14 years old,” said Bolas. “And then with it, I could start working on my bicycle. And I got into motorcycles and all these things that I could build. The wrenches of today aren’t physical. They’re the software wrenches.”

Schmidt also visited a USC rehabilitation research clinic with Belinda Lange who leads the motor rehab group in ICT’s Medical Virtual Reality Lab. In the story Lange takes a patient through Jewel Mine, the Kinect-based motor rehab tool she developed, which gets a postive review from patient Stacey Holmes.

“It causes you to try things at a pace and a precision that you wouldn’t otherwise try to do,” he said.

 Listen to the story.

http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/blog/npr-kinect-story-features-mark-bolas-and-belinda-lange%E2%80%99s-jewel-mine-game

CLICK ON  Listen to the story. IN THIS WEB PAGE

                                http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/blog/npr-kinect-story-features-mark-bolas-and-belinda-lange%E2%80%99s-jewel-mine-game/

SOME ADDITIONAL LINKS TO CHECK INTO

                       MOTHER NATURE KINECT XBOX 360 DIANE TUCKER

                       http://kotaku.com/5816244/the-best-kinect-game-you-never-heard-of-and-maybe-the-best-of-them-all

EXPLORES THE USE OF KINECT IN EDUCATION - AS THE AUTHOR NOTED, THIS TYPE OF TECHNOLOGY HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL IN LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS.

                    www.kinecteducation.com

                    
                   http://www.kinecteducation.com/blog/2011/11/15/what-is-kinecteducation-all-about/
                   

                    http://www.kinecthacks.com/kinect-swedish-dressing-room/

TOOLS TO ENABLE VR DEVELOPMENT

                         FAAST = FLEXIBLE ACTION AND ARTICULATED SKELETON TOOLKIT 

                         http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/faast/

                         Evan A. Suma, Belinda Lange, Skip Rizzo, David Krum, and Mark Bolas

                         Project Email Address: faast@ict.usc.edu
                        http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/07/with-microsoft-kinect-students-can-learn-how-to-hack/

                           http://www.isi.edu/research/rerc



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